Journal of Archaeological Science article Multi-isotope analysis demonstrates significant lifestyle changes in King Richard III. The findings formed part of the Channe1 4 programme Richard III: The New Evidence shown at 9pm on Sunday 17 August 2014.

The documentary also featured a body double for Richard III, demonstrating how scoliosis had little impact on his ability as a warrior.

More research on Richard's DNA to discover the colour of his hair and eyes.

The Richard III Society has the following statement on its website on the final tomb design.

A meeting took place on Monday 23rd June at the request of the Richard III Society and the Looking for Richard Project, with members of the King Richard III Re-interment Project Team. The meeting was constructive and conducted in a spirit of mutual goodwill, co-operation and reconciliation. The Re-interment Project Team undertook to look in further detail at a number of the points raised and to respond back in due course.
It can, however, be confirmed that the design of the Swaledale fossil stone tomb with the incised cross on will go ahead as stated by the Cathedral on 16 June and as approved by the Cathedral Fabrics Commission.
Discussions about the design did reveal that the lettering around the plinth, King Richard’s name, dates, and motto Loyaulte me lie, together with four small boars, will be cut out of the Kilkenny marble stone and will appear white, not black as shown on the CGI image.
Of course the incised cross will remain a disappointment to some but it was emphasised that the deep cut of the cross will allow light to flood through it, achieved through specially designed lighting in the newly created ambulatory. This is an interesting concept, which does require some imagination to visualise, but we are assured it will work.
Phil Stone Chairman & Wendy Moorhen Deputy Chair

Philippa Langley expresses criticism of the revised design of the tomb.

The Richard III Society has the following statement on its website about the article below: 19 June 2014: A report in the Leicester Mercury on Thursday 19 June implied that the Society took a different position to Philippa Langley over the most recent version for the tomb design for King Richard in Leicester Cathedral. This is not the case; we share common concerns about the design and will be jointly discussing these matters with the cathedral and other interested parties on Monday 23 June.

The Richard III Society response to criticism of the tomb, according to the Leicester Mercury.

Philippa Langley and the Dean of Leicester were interviewed on BBC Radio Leicester on Monday 16 June. The interviews begin at 2 hrs 6 mins into the programme. You can read a transcript by Nerdalicious.

Sunday 22 MarchKing Richard's funeral procession from the University of Leicester via Bosworth and various villages back to Leicester Cathedral.
King Richard went from Leicester University to Bosworth before returning to Leicester Cathedral where he was received by His Eminence Cardinal Vincent Nichols, the Archbishop of Westminster, who preached at the Compline Service.
Details of the route of the cortege taking the remains of King Richard III on his final journey.
The route was University of Leicester, Fenn Lane Farm, Dadlington, Sutton Cheney, Bosworth Battlefield Heritage Centre, Market Bosworth, Newbold Verdon, Desford and back to Leicester via Bow Bridge, arriving at the cathedral around 5.45pm.

The complete ceremony at Leicester University on Sunday morning with a list of everyone who took part is available on YouTube.

Monday 23 March

There was a hospitality suite in the guildhall from 23 - 27 March for members of the Richard III Society.

At 5 pm there was a Requiem Mass in the Holy Cross Priory Church in Wellington Street which was conducted by the Cardinal Archbishop of Westminster, wearing a chasuble dating from Richard's time. Cardinal Nichols celebrated mass for the repose of the soul (a Requiem Mass) of Richard III in Holy Cross Church, the Catholic parish church and Dominican priory in Leicester city centre. The Choir from St Barnabas’ Cathedral, the Cathedral of the Diocese of Nottingham, sang at this mass.

At 7pm the Richard III Society's own service - admission by ticket only - was held at the Cathedral which lasted between an hour and an hour and a half.

Monday 23, Tuesday 24, Wednesday 25 MarchKing Richard's body lay in state in Leicester Cathedral so the public could pay its respects.

Thursday 26 March - Leicester

King Richard III was reburied on Thursday March 26 2015 at Leicester Cathedral.
Reburial of King Richard III in Leicester Cathedral. This was broadcast live on Channel 4.
King Richard was reinterred in the Cathedral in the presence of the Most Rev and Rt Hon the Lord Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby. There were large screens set up in the Cathedral gardens.
In the evening the Richard III Society organised a performance of Geoffrey Davidson's Middleham Requiem at the church of St James the Greater, London Road, Leicester, with a 21-piece orchestra, a choir of 50, 12 choristers, three soloists and a narrator. This was only the fourth but the most poignant performance of this unique work which premiered at Fotheringhay church in 1993.

The Order of Service and the Bishop of Leicester's sermon. The order of service is as printed not as bound, so you have to leap about to follow the pages.

Thursday 26 March - YorkEvents in York on Reburial Day. Ricardians
met outside the Minster at 12 noon. The group
entered the Minster where a small remembrance of King Richard was followed by
the placing of white roses at Richard's window to the accompaniment of singing
by a soprano. White roses were available for those attending.
York Minster held a service of Evensong at 5.15pm to commemorate the life of King Richard III.

Thursday 26 March - LancashireAt 7.30pm at St Catherine’s Church, Stanifield Lane, Farington, Leyland, PR25 4QG (Off Junction 1 M65 or Junction 28 / 29 on M6)
A Requiem Mass in the style and manner of Richard's time.
Sung High Latin Mass with Singers of the Laeta Cantoribus Choir.
A light Buffet with wine was served afterwards. Father Henry welcomed all
Ricardians to the service.

Friday 27 MarchInvited people from across the city of Leicester and the county of Leicestershire gathered in the Cathedral to mark the end of King Richard's journey with the revealing of his sealedtomb.

Video released showing the moment Richard III's bones were first uncovered.

Leicester Cathedral has announced that King Richard III's final journey will be overseen by Funeral Directors A. J. Adkinson & Son of Oadby. They have been given the honour of carrying the remains of King Richard III from the University of Leicester to Leicester Cathedral.

Good for up-to-date news on what is happening in Leicester, including all the events organised for reburial week March 21 - March 29.

The memorial stone donated to Leicester Cathedral by the Leicestershire Branch of the Richard III Society, formerly the East Midlands Branch, has been removed from the Cathedral and is on loan to the King Richard III Visitor Centre.

Current Archaeology issue 299 contains an article on Richard III and the DNA evidence. The article on the link sums up the research very well and contains links to previous issues where you can read extracts of previous articles about Richard.

Details of the rosary given by John Ashdown-Hill being blessed before it is buried with Richard III.

Article about Princess Joanna of Portugal who might have married Richard III if things had gone well for him.

Three places associated with Richard III - his tomb, the visitor centre and Bosworth - are listed among the 25 most important places to visit in the world.

The lecture on Finding Richard III delivered at Keble College by Jo Appleby and Turi King on 12 October 2015.

King Richard III may feature on new road signs to mark entry into Leicester.

Students asked to design an hologram of Richard III to go on display at remains of Church of the Annunciation in Leicester.

Philippa Langley and John Ashdown-Hill receive their MBEs from the Queen on Friday 9 October 2015.
From The Richard III Society: The Richard III Society congratulates Philippa Langley and Dr John Ashdown-Hill on each receiving the MBE from HM The Queen at Buckingham Palace on Friday, 9th October. Philippa and John have been awarded the MBE in recognition of their services to ‘the Exhumation and Identification of Richard III’ (London Gazette). The MBE is given by Her Majesty the Queen in recognition of a significant achievement of outstanding service to the community, and for local ‘hands-on’ service which stands out as an example to other people.
Philippa Langley’s successful Looking For Richard project marked the first-ever search for the lost grave of an anointed King of England.
The project took seven and a half years, including four years of research and remarkably on the first day of the dig, King Richard’s remains were discovered in the place Philippa Langley had indicated.
Vital to Ms Langley’s search getting underway and its successful conclusion was the identification by Dr John Ashdown-Hill of the mtDNA sequence of Richard III in 2004/5.

The series of four meetings in Leicester Cathedral, known as ‘Dean’s Discussions’ are now available to listen to on-line. Each discussion lasts about an hour.
The people ‘interviewed’ are:
Jacqui Binns, who made the pall that covered King Richard’s coffin,
James Elliot, who carved the tomb,
Thomas Greenaway, who made the pietra dura Plantagenet arms on the tomb, and
Tom Denny, who is making stained glass windows to be set near the tomb.

2016

Leicester University Archaeological Services has created a 3Dmodel of King Richard III's grave.

Tuesday 3 May 2016: Radio 4 about Leicester City's Premier League success included a short story by Michael Morpugo. A "fairytale" describing Richard III's part in it!
This version is visual too and do keep going to the very end and there are a couple of nice photos.

The Guardian's Richard III related comment on Leicester City's success in the premiership.

A plane with the sign 'Had a Hunch We'd Win - Richard III' flies over the ground during the Barclays Premier League match between Leicester City and Everton at the King Power Stadium on May 7th , 2016.

Making the most of connections with Richard III: Tutbury Castle custodians have realised that Richard III visited the castle and are to publicise the fact. The information is not new though - see Rhoda Edwards’ invaluable book The Itinerary of King Richard III 1483 – 1485.

Article about the planned memorial in Bridport to commemorate Richard III's visit.

Richard III and St Ninian. Did Richard visit the saint's hometown of Whithorn? Philippa Langley MBE has been helping the Whithorn Trust with its research and will give a talk on Richard III to the Trust in September. The Trust is to unveil an interpretation board in August.

Here is the full press release from The History Press about The Secret Queen: Eleanor Talbot The Woman who put Richard III on the Throne.

Reports about the re-enactment events over the weekend of 20 and 21 August at the Bosworth Battlefield Heritage Centre. Lots of photos.

Report about the two day event about King Richard III at Sudeley Castle.

The story of a girl who realised she had scoliosis too after watching the programme about Richard. She’s since had her spine straightened.

The Richard III Society would like to congratulate Professor Caroline Wilkinson on receiving
the Combined Royal Colleges Award from the Royal Photographic Society for "an outstanding
contribution to the advancement of medical photography or medical imaging."
The citation states that she is an authority on facial reconstruction and often called on
as an expert in the media. Also, Professor Wilkinson is a leading figure in facial anthropology
and the developments used to reconstruct/identify individuals without DNA, fingerprints and dental records.
Her reconstruction of the face of Richard III is featured in a small film about her on the
RPS website and the reconstruction can be seen in the King Richard III Visitor centre in Leicester
where it is on permanent loan from the Society.

Following recent discussions with English Heritage, the Richard III Society is pleased to announce that it has donated a new Richard III standard to Middleham Castle. It will be flown on the following dates. We have also agreed that it will fly at half-mast on 22nd August and 9th April.
The standard was officially donated to the castle on behalf of the Society on 2nd October at 2.30pm by Susan Wells, Deputy Chairman.

Where exact dates are not known for certain events in the aforementioned list, the dates chosen are symbolic and as close to the likely date as we can ascertain. In addition, it has been agreed to fly the banner during the Middleham Festival each July.

Transcript of a trial in Leicester to determine if Richard III was guilty of murdering his nephews, the Princes in the Tower. The verdict thankfully was No.

Richard III's Book of Hours - Please wait until pages are fully loaded, else they can look somewhat distorted.
The Book of Hours known to have belonged to Richard III and found in his tent after Bosworth (as suggested by Anne Sutton and Livia Visser-Fuchs though there is no evidence for this - thanks to John Ashdown-Hill for pointing this out) has now been digitised and is on-line.
Also, part of the digitisation, is a copy of the book by the Society’s Anne Sutton and Livia Visser-Fuchs which gives a detailed commentary about the Book, its origin and its contents.
The work was done under the auspices of Leicester Cathedral, where Richard’s book was used during the service of Reinterment in March 2015. We are most grateful to the Cathedral for doing the work and to Lambeth Palace Library, where the Book is usually kept, for allowing it.
Our thanks also go to Anne and Livia for their permission to add their work to complete the presentation.
In order to facilitate the digitisation, the Society gave a donation to help defray the costs.

The Research Committee of the Richard III Society has compiled a list of books which are the Research Committee’s personal favourites and those that they have found most useful in understanding Richard III and his world.
Surprisingly it does not include anything by John Ashdown-Hill, whose books I believe are essential reading if you want correct information, as are Annette Carson's books which are on the list.

The Research Committee of the Richard III Society has set up a blog to help share knowledge of recent research into the life and times of Richard III. It is for anyone interested in the fifteenth century - you don't have to be in the Richard III Society.

John Ashdown-Hill's full itinerary of Edward IV is on his section on the Amberley Publishing.website.

John Ashdown Hill is putting his talks onto his website and Facebook page for everyone to use.

John Ashdown-Hill's latest research into why Richard III's Y chromosome is different to others known to be descended from Edward III.

Brooch found at Kirby Muxloe castle auctioned on 23 August for £20,800. It could have belonged to Katherine, wife of William Hastings.

Mortimer's Cross Project Update October 2017
We are thrilled to announce that a Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) grant of £84,400 has now been awarded to the
Mortimer’s Cross Battlefield Project,a local group of the Battlefields Trust. We can now begin to investigate the site of this ‘Wars of the Roses’ battle and raise
awareness of its historic importance in leading Edward IV, the first Yorkist King, to the throne. Work will begin in the new year and finish in 2021 when visitor
information will be completed.
The project will set historic
interpretation panels at key points in the landscape and provide a permanent visitor information display at the
Mortimer’s Cross Inn for the many visitors to the site.

The BBC History Hot 100 list for 2017 - Richard III has kept the top spot.

Issue 331 of Current Archaeology has an article about a vervel which was found in Bedfordshire and probably belonged to a hunting bird belonging to either Edward V when he was Prince of Wales or to Edward of Lancaster.
Further information about the vervelA vervel is a ring attached to the bird’s leg for securing it to the perch.

Joanna Laynesmith has written an important and impressive account of the life of Cecily Neville, Duchess of York. It’s available from the publishers for £59.50.
A copy is in our branch library.

Colwell Wood Cottage. This cottage in Devon once belonged to Richard Duke of Gloucester. It was featured in The Times on 29 September 2017.

A gold half angel coin from Richard’s reign found near Bosworth was auctioned in London on December 13 at Dix Noonan Webb. Lot number 964.
It sold for £34,000. With commission etc the buyer paid £40,800.

Pamela Tudor Craig died on the 5th December at the age of 89. This is a nice article about her (scroll down the page to find the tribute).

A French postage stamp was issued in July 2017 showing Edward IV and the King of France on the bridge at Picquigny in 1475.

The Northern Dales Group of the Richard III Society has produced a glossy colour book Richard III's North costing £6 plus post and packing.

Announcing John Ashdown-Hill's forthcoming book The Mythology of the Princes in the Tower in which he reveals the mtDNA of the bones.

The Canterbury Roll belongs to the University of Canterbury in New Zealand and was drawn up in the late 1420's or early 1430's, intended to defend the legitimacy of Henry VI. It was modified after 1461 to include the Yorkist Kings.

Richard was born in Fotheringhay Castle on October 2nd 1452. As Duke of Gloucester his hard work helped keep his brother, Edward IV,
on the throne. Richard III was King of England from 1483 to 1485. He died in battle at Bosworth Field in Leicestershire
on August 22. Shakespeare cast him wrongly as a murdering villain, and the image stuck. Shakespeare was a brilliant dramatist
but a lousy historian. By studying what is known of his life a totally different man emerges.

On February 4 2013 it was announced that the human remains found in the choir of the Greyfriars in Leicester belong to King Richard III. He was reburied in Leicester Cathedral on Thursday March 26 2015.

For this you will receive one issue of "The Ricardian" a year, containing detailed research
about medieval topics relating to Richard III, and four copies of the "Ricardian Bulletin" a
year, which contains all the news about the Society, meetings and outings.

Members of the Richard III Society now receive a membership card entitling them to the following discounts:

Bowes Museum, Barnard Castle: discounted rate of £7 per person for groups of 12 or more.

Following recent discussions with English Heritage, the Richard III Society is pleased to announce that it has donated a new Richard III standard to Middleham Castle. It will be flown on the following dates.
The standard was officially donated to the castle on behalf of the Society on 2nd October at 2.30pm by Susan Wells, Deputy Chairman.

Where exact dates are not known for certain events in the aforementioned list, the dates chosen are symbolic and as close to the likely date as we can ascertain. In addition, it has been agreed to fly the banner during the Middleham Festival each July.

Thanks to the success of the bad press Richard received from Sir Thomas More, Henry VII and ultimately William Shakespeare,
much of what people believe about Richard is totally wrong. The discovery of his skeleton has proved once and for all that he was not a hunchback, but had scoliosis, meaning one shoulder was higher than the other. No one who saw him clothed or in armour would notice anything wrong. Members of the Society
publicise what is really known about him, to demonstrate how unrealistic many so-called facts are.

To quote the official aims of the society:
In the belief that many features of the traditional accounts of the character and career of Richard III are neither
supported by sufficient evidence nor reasonably tenable, the Society aims to promote in every possible way research
into the life and times of Richard III, and to secure a re-assessment of the material relating to this period,
and of the role in English history of this monarch.

The branch exists so that members of the Society who live in and around Worcestershire can meet regularly to share their
knowledge and enjoyment of Richard and his times. Our meetings are very social occasions.

Have a look at the branch history to see some highlights of previous years.

See this year's programme for details of all the meetings planned for this year.

Click here for details of how to join the branch. New members are always welcome.